Meenakshi – The girl who was stabbed to death for resisting Eve teasing in National Capital .

“Mom, a guy has been teasing me since a month now and behaves with me in a very inappropriate manner. I think we should go to the police and lodge complaint.”
“No dear, we won’t complain. You have to be cautious and come home every day before dawn. Just ignore them and they’ll stop doing it eventually.”

“Why should I sacrifice my freedom Mom? The police will take some action against them and I would not have to be afraid anymore.”

“This is what you think my darling. If we complaint to the police and the guy comes to know of that, he’ll take revenge.”

“Why are you saying this mom? This is so unfair. I cannot live like this – so afraid all the time.”

“We have to dear. The world is like this now. A girl tried to take up stand against eve-teasing and you know what happened to her? She was stabbed brutally, 35 times. She is not alive anymore. We cannot risk anything like that by going to the police because the police will not take any action and it’ll give more strength to the guilty.”

This is what the scenario is in houses after the incident on July 16th, when a 19 year old innocent girl was stabbed to death for standing up against eve-teasing in Anand Parbat area in the Capital.

The girl’s family members have alleged that she had been molested by the two accused earlier but despite lodging a complaint in 2013, police had taken no action against them. They also claimed that she was attacked by her neighbours over the two-year-old police complaint. However, the police refused and said that no complaint was filed. The victim and the accused resided in the same area and had a strained relationship and they often fought with each other over petty issues. On Thursday evening, she was waylaid by her neighbours, Jai Prakash alias Sunny and Illu, when she was returning home after buying groceries from the local market. The accused started verbally abusing her and when she objected, they stabbed her. Her mother tried saving her but she also faced severe injuries. When the girl asked the neighbours for help, they refused and threw her out and said that they do not want to be involved in matters like that. The girl and mother were rushed to hospital, where the girl breathed her last.

Is this what the world has come to? If you don’t speak up, you are unaware and stupid and if you do, you’ll be stabbed to death! No wonder Delhi is called the Crime Capital. And who is it to be blamed? Was it the girl’s fault that she took a stand? Was it the neighbours’ fault that they didn’t even help? Or was it the negligence of police? A stitch in time saves nine. If only the police had taken up action when the incident was initially reported, maybe the girl would have been alive today and thousands of girls in their houses would not be so much afraid as they are now to fight for justice. The only thing the girls can do is to suffocate themselves with all the wrong things happening to them and keep mum because that’s how they won’t be stabbed and that’s how the Indian society works. Crimes like this happen every day; every minute and so many of them go unnoticed. There will not be even an infinitesimal change in people’s mindset till men are raised who understand that women are different, and know never to take advantage of that difference.

“The day a woman can walk freely on the roads at night, that day we can truly say that India has achieved independence.” – Mahatma Gandhi